NEW YORK — LeBron James was sitting comfortably on the bench and figured on staying there. Then J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert punctuated their return to New York with an alley-oop that demanded he stand.
"That was beautiful, that was special,"...

With a sunny disposition that would have put a children's television show host to shame, Jenny Simpson smiles frequently — and not because she is a two-time Olympian, former world champion in the 1,500 meters and a world-class athlete.
She was...

Britpop icons Blur are back, with a big summer show and their first album in more than a decade.
The band members announced Thursday that they will headline a British Summer Time concert in Hyde Park on June 20.
Blur last reunited for the 2012...

Paris moved a step closer to bidding for the 2024 Olympics on Thursday when Mayor Anne Hidalgo welcomed the results of a feasibility study on bringing the games back to the capital after a 100-year absence.
Hidalgo, who received the feasibility study...

Montverde Academy freshman Katie Schorr will go to school at the pool this week.
She will be joined by several of the area's top high-school swimmers who will get the rare opportunity to compete in the same meet as Olympians at the Arena Pro Swim Series in Orlando. The three-day meet will begin Thursday at the YMCA Aquatic Center on International Drive.
Schorr is entered in the meet for the second year in a row.
"I hope to watch their technique and see a lot of what they do," said Schorr, part of...

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo remains cautious about a potential Paris bid for the 2024 Olympics, saying she still needs to be convinced that hosting the games will be worth the effort.
In an interview with French television station BFMTV on Tuesday, Hidalgo expressed her general support for a bid but reiterated her concerns about the costs and the ecological impact of hosting the games in the French capital.
"My heart is rather with sports and the games but at the same time I'm not ready to do any old...

London Mayor Boris Johnson, launching a six-day swing through the East Coast, on Monday took on the role of traveling salesman, encouraging a packed room of some of the nation's top college students and entrepreneurs to consider launching their careers as part of his city's growing technology sector.
Speaking at the British Consulate, near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's campus, Johnson said London's economy is undergoing its "greatest transformation" since the Industrial Revolution made it a...

The U.S. women's soccer team is in Europe this week for a pair of friendlies, readying for the start of the World Cup in four months. Who will be the American goalkeeper in that tournament is an open question.
Hope Solo, at 33, is still considered one of the best goalies in the world, but she isn't traveling with the U.S. squad because of her latest episode of self-destructive and off-putting behavior.
She was suspended by U.S. Soccer for 30 days and sent home from training camp on Jan. 21 after her...

Doug Bruno will once again be on the bench at the Olympics.
USA Basketball announced Monday that the DePaul coach will return as an assistant to Connecticut's Geno Auriemma for the 2016 Rio Summer Games.
The U.S. women already have qualified for Rio by winning the gold medal at the 2014 World Championships.
Bruno was part of Auriemma's staff at the 2012 Olympics and the last two world championships, during which Team USA had a 23-0 record.
South Carolina's Dawn Staley and the Minnesota Lynx'...

Now back in Moscow, busier than ever, Svetlana Abrosimova remains a social media maven. She checks in with the world as often as time allows.
So it did not surprise her to learn that Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, the precocious three-point shooter from California, was about to knock her off the list of UConn's Top 10 career scorers. She'd been reading about it and knew it was coming. .
And for those who remember the unique relationship Abrosimova still shares with Geno Auriemma, hearing that her...